Seirin High has been featured, meaning it was chosen as a team of interest.
“
It's only been two years since their formation, but they've crushed all of their opponents since their Winter Cup debut! They're the revolutionary eye of the typhoon of this competition!! The miraculous new star, Seirin High School!!
”
—Seirin High being announced onto the court
Seirin High (誠凛高校, Seirin Kōkō) is a high school basketball team in Tokyo where Tetsuya Kuroko and Taiga Kagami play. The basketball club was founded only one year before the current story-line by Teppei Kiyoshi,[1] so the team only consisted of first and second-years (currently second and third-years). Quite unusually, the team's coach is a high schooler, daughter of sports trainer, Riko Aida. Her sex and age has caused some to think that she's a manager. The club's captain is Junpei Hyūga.
Seirin High is noted for having an exceptional high-leveled run-and-gun style. Their offensive firepower is considered one of the best in the region. Their main line-up is composed of the rookie-duo Kuroko and Kagami, "Iron Heart" Kiyoshi, the clutch shooter Hyūga and the control tower Izuki.[2]
Seirin got through the Interhigh preliminaries, but were defeated in the final league by Tōō Academy. In the following Winter Cup, they beat Tōō Academy in the first round, defeated Yōsen High in the quarter-finals and bested Kaijō High in the semi-finals. After an extremely tough game against Rakuzan High, Seirin came out victorious and won the Winter Cup.
Last year, when Seirin High School was just opened, there was no basketball club. Because of Hyūga and Kiyoshi's encounter, Kiyoshi founded the club and started recruiting members. While Hyūga didn't want to participate, his best friend Izuki did, and a bit later Koganei and Mitobe also joined.[3] Kiyoshi eventually succeeded in pursuing Hyūga and he agreed to join. After the basketball club's speech at the morning announcements, Riko (who initially refused) was convinced and joined as well.[4] The club also gained Tsuchida as a member at the first training.
Seirin after their first match ever
At the Interhigh preliminaries, Seirin broke through all the rounds and eventually got to the finals, where they had to face Kirisaki Daīchi High. They won closely, but lost Kiyoshi due to an injury indirectly caused by Hanamiya. Kiyoshi had to stay in the hospital for at least a year and Seirin was crushed in the final league of the preliminaries, against the Three Kings of Tokyo.[5]
Seirin's loss against Tōō
The next year, Seirin gained 5 new members: Kagami, Furihata, Fukuda, Kawahara and the phantom player of the Generation of Miracles, Kuroko. Seirin got through the preliminaries of the Interhigh again, with wins against Seihō High in the semi-finals and against Shūtoku High in the finals, two of the three they lost to last year. In the final league, they were defeated by Tōō Academy and couldn't win against the other opponents and were thrown out of the Interhigh.[6]
Seirin goes to the Winter Cup
The team trained for the Winter Cup next, with a summer training camp at the beach. At the Winter Cup preliminaries, they won against Josei High and advanced to the final league. There, they had to face Senshinkan High, the opponent they lost to twice in the Interhigh preliminaries. They won and had to face their rivals Shūtoku High next. This match ended into a tie, so the deciding match whether or not Seirin could advance to the actual Winter Cup was against Kirisaki Daīchi. They won after a very turbulent match and gained a ticket to the Winter Cup.[7]
Seirin emerge as the victors of the Winter Cup
Now, Seirin is competing in the Winter Cup. The first round was against Tōō High, the opponents they lost to last time. All odds were against Seirin, but with the awakening of Kagami and the battle of Aomine and Kagami's Zone ability eventually led to Seirin's win with one point. In the second round, Seirin played the whole game with all freshmen benched and narrowly won. In the third round, Seirin played the first three quarters in the same way, but used Kagami and Kuroko in the final quarter to secure victory. In the quarter-finals, Seirin faced Yōsen High, the team that totally prevents their opponents from scoring even once, led by Murasakibara and Himuro. Despite facing the strongest defense in the tournament, Seirin won and was set to play Kaijō, their original rivals. In the semi-finals. Seirin seemed to have the entire control of the game but Kise using his 'Perfect Copy' in the remaining minutes of the match put Seirin in danger. But still, Seirin emerged victorious and will face Rakuzan in the finals who defeated Shūtoku High on the other hand.
Seirin face Rakuzan High, the so-called "Emperor" led by Akashi along with the three Uncrowned Kings and another phantom sixth man in the presence of Chihiro Mayuzumi. Everyone's will were tested and against all odds, were announced as this year's champions.[8] However, the team lost Kiyoshi who gave his everything and has to go under rehabilitation.
Offensive style
Since the team has changed significantly from last year, their strategies and plays were also different, hence the distinction.
Last year
Seirin's classic run & gun style that is still used today
Run & Gun Speed Basketball: Developed during the team's first year and their primary offensive style. It relies on fast breaks after a defensive rebound or inbound after an opponent's goal. The team comes invading in an instant, both with passes and fast footwork. It's a super offensive style and aims to quickly get the ball inside, before the defense can organize. It's a fast-paced point war.[9]
In-and-out: With Hyūga being a threat from the 3 point area, Kiyoshi managing the middle with his delay techniques while acting as both center and point guard, and Izuki controlling the offense, they fall to this style in a half court situation when Run & Gun fails. It's very unique, as it seemingly uses two point guards, both inside (Kiyoshi) and out (Izuki), and is perfect for circulating the ball until it reaches a free man, this often being outside shooters, Hyūga. In comparison to the Run & Gun, this strategy relies much less on speed.[10]
Current year
Ever-changing Run & Gun Speed Basketball: A variant of their Run & Gun which uses Kuroko's Misdirection to confuse opponents with irregular passes. It is said that this is and will be Seirin's complete offense style. It highly relies on passwork, getting it to the right player in the right spot using Kuroko's strength to its highest extent. This evidently confuses the defense, as it is ever-changing.[11]
(Complete) In-and-out: Kagami joins Kiyoshi in the middle for increased firepower. Hyūga remains a threat from the outside. Kuroko acts as a relay passer to send the ball to either the inside (Kagami usually), or outside to Hyūga. Kuroko may also initiate the offense himself by using the Vanishing Drive, or use Misdirection Overflow to make his teammates use the Vanishing Drive.
Kuroko changes the pass course
(Surprise) In-and-out: Kuroko uses Misdirection to vanish from both opponents and teammates, and moves independently from play to intercept his teammates' passes and sends the ball to a teammate in a good position. Both teammates and opponents do not exactly know when or where he passes, and are surprised when he does so. This is used in the match against Kirisaki Daīchi to prevent Makoto Hanamiya from stealing the ball.[12]
Showdown of the aces, Seirin trusts the ball to Kagami
Kagami Isolation: A style opposite of Seirin's "Team Oriented" plays, Kagami receives the ball and takes on his defender one-on-one. During occasions they fall into isolations, Kagami is either very focused or "in the zone". Notable occasions are matches versus Tōō and Kaijō.
Full Court Pass: On some occasions, Kuroko will pass the ball across the court to a teammate on their half for a speedy goal. Such an occasion occurred to counter Midorima's high-arching shot.[13] In the end, it's a simple fast-break, but still specialized for Kuroko and either Kagami or Kiyoshi.
Direct Drive Zone
Direct Drive Zone: The true form of the Zone in which all of the Seirin players synchronise their plays to match with Kagami's while he is in the Zone. For the second door of the Zone to open, it requires teamwork and complete trust among the team members.
Rookie Duo Combination: In some situations, Kagami and Kuroko passes the ball to each other in order to break the opponents' defense and usually ends with Kagami's dunk. They can use this on a two-on-one situation,[14] but also use it to pass multiple defenders.[15]
Seirin uses a Box-and-one defense as their base zone defense. It involves the best defensive player going man-to-man against the opponent's best player, while the rest of the team initially occupies each corner of the paint. Seirin went as far as making it a full-court Box-and-one, after witnessing Midorima's insane shooting range and his increased offensive focus. Under the scheme, the 'one' playing man-to-man for Seirin is Kagami, but given Kuroko's lack of size but stealth to play the passing lane, he will break the formation, and either strip the ball, or shield Kagami from view before he springboards over Kuroko to block shots.
S.A.M. Defense
S.A.M. Defense
S.A.M. using Kuroko's steal
1/2
S.A.M. Defense is a special defensive formation, designed by the Seirin team. It's an abbreviation of the tactic's full title: Stealth All-court Man-to-man Defense. This formation consist of a full-court man-to-man pressure defense, literally the players marking their man tight from the inbound to the other side. But the difference from a regular man-to-man defense, is that this formation switches their mark constantly and in a way so that Kuroko ends up in the passing line, making use of his Misdirection skill perfectly and stealing the ball, explaining the Stealth part in the tactic's title.[16]
2-3 Zone
This is a base zone defense that is deployed by Yosen due the the length and wingspan of the three tallest players. However, Kagami decided to use the same strategy against Yosen once they break through the S.A.M. Defense. The alignment is the guards up top and the forwards and centers (with Kuroko at the SF spot), but when Teppei is out with his knee injury flaring up, Kagami occupied the center spot instead.
Training style
Pool training
Pool training
Seirin's infamous drill at Aida Sports Gym. The training consists of regular footwork and muscle training, but while submerged or partially submerged in water. The water makes sure that the high schoolers' bodies are fully supported, causing the risk of injuries to drop drastically. The downside of the water means that the pressure and resistance make the training extra hard. Seirin used this training to prepare for the final league of the Interhigh.
Michael Jordan notably used it to rehab from his foot injury in 1985-86 a season, but his head was never submerged in water.[17]
Beach running
Beach running
At their first training camp, the summer camp, Seirin practiced their regular training scheme at the beach, so on sand. It is much more difficult to move and run on sand, so every player increased their muscles strength. But that is not the only reason why the training was held on the beach. Because when a foot hits the ground, the toe comes first, so by running without shoes on the sand, you can easily strengthen your big toe, which causes the players to move faster on the court and to improve their movements.
Fartlek
Fartlek
A fartlek is a system of training in which the player runs in nature. By running on irregular terrains using their entire body, the player can achieve a balanced increase in fitness. Seirin underwent this kind of training on their second camp, the winter camp. Kagetora, Riko's father, ordered Seirin to split up in two teams and then let the one team try to catch the other team in the mountains. This was just a way to make them run fast in nature, applying the fartlek. Kagetora said it was a 3-hour game of "Cops n' Robbers" in the mountains. This training purpose was to make every player adapt his body to the acquired muscles throughout the regular trainings. Kagetora called it mixing up muscles in your body.
Seirin is the only school with a maxed out "Teamwork" stat.
Seirin High School exists in real life, but is more specialized in baseball than basketball. The kanji for both schools are also different. (誠凛 and 星琳 respectively.)
According to the rush to get the special pork bread, Seirin High School has its own weightlifting, sumo wrestling, American Football and Rugby, amongst other teams.
Seirin has an interesting starting players at the events of the show: Kagami Taiga(who's growth becomes that of the Generations of Miracles), Kuroko Tetsuya(who's affiliated with the GoM and their Phantom Sixth Man), Kiyoshi Teppei (an Uncrowned King, with the Right of Postponement), Junpei Hyuga and Izuki Shun(who's growth becomes that of an Uncrowned King).
In a Q&A section from volume 13, the question was who is the most popular guy in Seirin. The answer was Izuki, but it was noted that they all run away when they see his "joke book".[18]
After the Winter Cup preliminaries, Tōō Academy and Seirin High players "coincidentally" met up in the hot springs and during that meet up they had a small competition to who stays longer inside the sauna. Seirin won the competition since Mitobe stayed the longest inside the sauna.
Tsuchida is the only team member who is dating. At some point, Riko and Kiyoshi used to date with each other.
Izuki is the team's accountant and has to pay a lot after Kagami binge eating.
All of their players are named after the days of the week in Japanese, with exception of Kuroko, Fukuda, Furihata and Kawahara. Starting from Sunday, Hyūga (日), Izuki (月), Kagami (火), Mitobe (水), Kiyoshi (木), Koganei (金), and Tsuchida (土).
According to the CHARACTERS BIBLE, Seirin is a new school with good facilities and pretty small in size compared to other well known schools in the series but is located in a strategic location in Tokyo and near a station.
Seirin's members Tetsuya Kuroko, Taiga Kagami, and Teppei Kiyoshi, all have their first name starting with a T and their last name starting with a K.
In a Q&A section, it is revealed that there are 18 different types of bread sold at the cafeteria. The Special Sandwich is one of them.[19]
Interestingly, 4 out of 11 players share the same star sign - Taurus.
Seirin's starting members Kuroko, Kagami, Hyūga, and Izuki all have blood type A except for Kiyoshi, who has blood type O.
Seirin team's height / weight / age / blood groups data:
Height
Weight
Age
Kiyoshi - 194 cm
Kagami - 190
Mitobe - 188
Tsuchida - 183
Fukuda - 180
Hyūga - 178
Kawahara - 175
Izuki - 175
Koganei - 170
Furihata - 170
Kuroko - 168
Riko - 156 cm
Kagami - 82 kg
Kiyoshi - 81
Mitobe - 78
Fukuda - 70
Tsuchida - 70
Hyūga - 68
Koganei - 67
Kawahara - 64
Izuki - 64
Furihata - 60
Kuroko - 57 kg
Riko - Unknown
Tsuchida - May 1st
Hyūga - May 16th
Kiyoshi - June 10th
Koganei - September 11th
Izuki - October 23rd
Mitobe - December 3rd
Riko - February 5th
Fukuda - April 26th
Kawahara - May 18th
Kagami - August 2nd
Furihata - November 8th
Kuroko - January 31st
This age comparison is true if following the Japanese school year (in which school begins and ends in April).
Read more about Japanese point of view on personality through blood types here.
